Taylor, MI Business Licensing & Operations: Tobacco Retail License (2026)

Taylor's zoning ordinance groups tobacco retailers and tobacco stores with adult uses, firearms dealers, pawn shops, tattoo parlors, precious metal dealers and resale shops as "regulated uses" under Zoning Ordinance, Appendix A Article 20. Sec. 20.01(b) states the intent is to prevent a concentration of these uses, limiting them to no more than one within 1,000 feet of another regulated use, a residential district, or any nursery, primary, or secondary school, and provides that regulated uses are only permitted as special land uses. Sec. 20.02(a)(5) lists "Tobacco retailer/store" directly among the prohibited-if-too-close uses, and Sec.

20.02(b) bars any regulated use within 1,000 feet of a church, a school, a single- or multiple-family residential district or Midtown district, a lot in residential use, a public park, or a child care facility, nursery, or preschool. Distances are measured in a straight line from the nearest property boundary of the tobacco retailer to the nearest lot line of the protected use, without regard to intervening structures. A tobacco retailer already lawfully operating on the ordinance's adoption date that later falls out of compliance is treated as a nonconforming use rather than shut down immediately (Sec.

20.02(f)), and a regulated use may only locate in a zoning district where it is listed as allowed (Sec. 20.02(g)). Approval requires the same special land use and site plan review process the city uses for all regulated uses, administered by the planning commission, and the 1,000-foot separation may only be waived on specific findings under Sec. 20.04, not for adult uses.